On Mon, 2004-10-04 at 13:24 -0600, Mike Cesari wrote:
> Aha!
> Sounds like you have an RM03, not an RM05. The RM03 has 6 heads and the
> RM05
> has 20. In the RM03, everything fits into one cabinet. Not the case for
> the
> RM05. This is because space in the RM05 is taken up by the deeper disk
> pack
> enclosure and the larger motor.

Aha - I think you might be on to something there. the chap who actually
knows about this system hasn't touched it since it was dismantled ten
years ago, so his memory's naturally a little hazy, and I'm not a DEC
person at all!

> Isn't this fun?

Actually it's a pretty good challenge - the system was *totally*
dismantled and spread over several rooms, so we've done well to get it
all reassembled and (nearly) all the bits found. Currently we're missing
two door hinges and a little bit of plastic trim from the rack front
that attaches with velcro-like pads, but we seem to have located
everything else.

The CPU seemed to fire up OK after we'd tested the power supplies, but
we need the front panel key before we can check operation properly
(luckily that's at someone's house and not lost in storage).

Whether the drives are still operational after ten years of non-use is
another matter (all sound deadening / filters have naturally all
decayed). The system was operated by Shell and provided a multi-user
document system to about 40 users, complete with a primitive form of
hyperlinking - and apparently was totally network-aware and could hook
up with other such systems across a WAN to share information. Would be
interesting to get it booting (we've got all the disk packs, including
engineer tests, and those have all been in sealed storage so should be
OK still)

I'll have to hunt out a 'scrap' disk pack to try initially in case
anything lets go in a big way (worst case we've got sealed original-
stock packs so could sacrifice one of those)